Where No 'Star Trek' Soundtrack Has Gone Before

By DAVID WEINER

December 13, 2012

Fresh fanfare surrounding the upcoming Star Trek Into Darknessis revving up renewed interest in the original Star Trek TV series. One key component of what makes Star Trek great is the incredible symphonic soundtrack that accompanied every episode, and now LA-LA Land Records has released Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection, a limited-edition, must-have box set for true fans of the series – and the perfect gift for the Trekkies and Trekkers in your galaxy.

According to the set's incredibly detailed and thorough liner notes, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry looked to veteran composer and arranger Alexander Courage to use a nautical approach to the show's soundtrack, hoping to keep the mid-'60s space series that was originally pitched as "A Wagon Train to the Stars" grounded.

"My feeling was this," said Roddenberry in a 1982 interview, "that for the first time on television I was going to have situations and life forms that were totally unlike what the audience was accustomed to. And I thought, 'My God, I had better keep as many things as possible very understandable to my audience.' I was afraid that if, on top of bizarre alien seascapes, I had beep-beep-beep music, then I would be in trouble. And so I wanted music that said adventure, courage, boldness – all the things we talked about in the opening words of, 'To boldly go,' and so on."

The 15-CD box set showcases all episode scores heard in all three original seasons of the landmark sci-fi series, newly remastered, and features hours of material previously unreleased in any format. Four detailed, full-color booklets (totaling over 100 pages) accompany the discs, containing composer details and histories, interviews, concept art, loads of great stills and outtakes from the series.

Listening to the incredible music again illustrates just how the show's composers (Courage, George Duning, Jerry Fielding, Gerald Fried, Sol Kaplan, Samuel Matlovsky, Joseph Mullendore and Fred Steiner) would compensate for Trek's low-budget special effects with music to excite the imagination. And if there was an emotional cue to be had, or a Vulcan mind-meld required, the requisite themes would effectively tell us all just how to feel.

And that famous female soprano voice heard over the opening theme that's so predominantly associated with Star Trek? That was sung by Loulie Jean Norman. So impressed by her delivery, Roddenberry was insistent that her voice rise above the backing instrumentation, because the theme "needed the human touch, the little human imperfection that we have in our voices that no instrument can quite give us yet."

CLICK HERE to beam Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection into your hands now…